Sobolewski - Transformative Portrait

 

For the Transformative Portrait assignment I chose to go fun and festive with a halloween themed composition. I wanted to challenge myself by trying to fit a concept given by another person and my model for this requested they would have bat wings and a large pumpkin in the background! For the base image I photographed a cosplayer from the Haunted Union event and removed the background of the image. This background was later replaced with a scene created within Blender using a variety of images and 3d models arranged and edited using the in-engine compositor kit in Blender. Once exported as a png the image of the cosplayer was placed forward and edited further with color corrections, painted lighting, and different curve and level adjustments. Afterwards the photoshop file made its way into after effects where I adjusted the wings' scale to give it a believable flapping movement and added a particle effect through the AE particle feature. It was a challenging assignment for me for sure as I have less experience with motion design and 3d software than 2d ones like photoshop but it was a fun experiment!

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(All photos from freepik are free to use with attribution!)

Freepik Batwings

Wood Texture

Background Wall Texture

 - 3D models-

pumpkin

CC Attribution

table

CC Attribution

Michelle Sobolewski - Under the Influence

 

portfolio website

Instagram portfolio

For the Under the Influence Project, I found many photographers interesting; however, none inspired me more than Ryan Sims (@Ryansimsphotography on instagram and youtube). Ryan Sims is a digital artist and photographer from the Nashville area. He is a professional with over 10 years of in-industry experience, making movie posters and advertisements for various clients. Along with this industry experience, he mostly focuses on cosplay photography.

 

His photography and editing have a strong fantasy and comic book influence, manifesting itself through the subject matter, setting, and effects. All of his pieces are character-focused, with the figure always the main center of attention. A majority of his portfolio consists of action shots, focusing on the figures in movement and capturing dynamic poses in his photography. He also blends photography with digital compositing in an interesting way as the figure is often someone in a costume captured in a photograph while the background is different, likely edited in-post. Instead of editing the figure, Ryan focuses on editing the environment around them to tell a story, ranging from epic battle scenes with magical effects to more calm moments in a fantasy/medieval setting. 

On a technical level, the color grading depends on the scene and the character, but oftentimes leans towards bright colors. He often uses strong lighting along with high contrast editing in post to create an intense feeling in his photos. There is no obvious preference between landscape or portrait photos, using whichever orientation fits the theme of the piece and the character better. If the background is an important staging element, then it would be landscape, but if it is focused more on the character’s expression/upper body, then portrait orientation would be used.

Megan Cluck - Under the Influence

 

Ron Schmidt

Ron Schmidt is a commercial and fine-art photographer best known for his Loose Leashes series, where he creates humorous and imaginative portraits of dogs placed into human-like scenarios. Rather than simply photographing animals in costumes, Schmidt builds each scene using compositing techniques that allow the dogs to appear as active characters within a narrative moment, such as water skiing, paddling a canoe, or standing inside a goldfish bowl. His lighting style is clean and bright, and his compositions are simple and centered, which helps keep the focus on expression and character rather than technical distraction. His work is playful and approachable, making the animals feel charming, expressive, and recognizable as personalities.

Schmidt’s imagery relies heavily on digital compositing. The dogs, props, and environments are often photographed separately and then combined in Photoshop to create a seamless final scene. For example, in SKIP, the dog on water skis, the rope, and the reflective water surface are layered together with matched lighting and added shadows to make the pose look believable. In Lewie & Clark, ADVENTURERS, the canoe, river, paddles, and tennis ball are composed to create a sense of movement and teamwork between the dogs. In MOBY, the dog, the goldfish bowl, the water, and the background are blended carefully, with transparency and glass distortion effects reinforcing the realism of the composite. These examples make it clear that Schmidt does not rely on staging alone, his work is shaped by digital layering, masking, and color grading.

For my own project, I want to build on Schmidt’s use of personality-driven storytelling through animal portraiture. I plan to photograph my dog and composite her into a character role, similar to how Schmidt assigns identity and narrative to his subjects. Like Schmidt, I want the humor to come from presenting the dog seriously within an absurd or unexpected context, rather than exaggerating or making the image cartoony. I also want to use a clean, bright color palette and clear compositing so the final image feels polished while still being fun. By working in Schmidt’s style, I can create a portrait that is lighthearted, expressive, and visually cohesive, but still technically grounded in thoughtful compositing.

Under the Influence Research - Lucy Yeates

Joshua Hoffine

https://www.joshuahoffine.com/

Joshua Hoffine is an American photographer known for his staged horror photographs that explore childhood fears and the darker aspects of the imagination. Hoffine blends multiple photographs to create seamless, hyperrealistic scenes that feel both cinematic and unsettling. Hoffine often constructs elaborate sets, using actors, costumes, and props, which he later enhances in Photoshop. This allows him to push the boundaries of realism, creating photographs that resemble film stills rather than static images. His use of lighting, shadow contrast, and saturated tones gives each composition a heightened sense of tension and atmosphere.

Hoffine’s images are characterized by their careful composition and narrative clarity. Works from his series “After Dark My Sweet” (2003–2010) demonstrate his skill at directing the viewer’s gaze through the use of light and spatial arrangement. Whether a child hiding under a bed or a figure lurking in the background, each element contributes to telling a story. Hoffine often uses low camera angles and deep focus to create a sense of immersion, as if the viewer were inside the nightmare. His color palettes typically feature muted browns, greens, and grays, punctuated by warm highlights, evoking the visual tone of classic horror films.

I especially love this type of work because it explores fear as a shared human experience. He draws inspiration from fairy tales, horror cinema, and psychological archetypes, often using children as protagonists to emphasize the vulnerability and intensity of early emotional experiences. His photographs balance theatricality and realism, forcing viewers to confront their own subconscious anxieties. In my project, I plan to extend Hoffine’s techniques by experimenting with compositing to merge fantasy and reality. Using Photoshop layers and color grading to build surreal scenes that explore the theme of memory and distorted perception, I want to create images that feel both familiar and haunting.

Under The Influence Research - Jacob Taylor

                         

Magdiel Lopez

Link to Website: https://www.magdiellopez.com/

In these four images, Magdiel Lopez chooses landscape as his main subject in addition to skyscrapers. Lopez uses saturation, hue, line, and shape to contradict nature with man-made structures. The high saturation in the last three images brings a mystical nature to nature. In stark contrast, the saturation in the first image is muddled and brings a daunting quality to the imposing nature of the skyscrapers on the mountains. The use of lines demarcates land and airspace. It also calls attention to the weight of man-made structural forms on surrounding nature. The shapes add character to the mountains in the last image, and highlight the magnificence of the power of nature in the second and third images.

Conceptually, I believe Magdiel wants the viewer to acknowledge the impact that mankind has on nature, including their relationship to it. Nature is powerful, bright, dark, and full of character. Many times, we think we have figured out nature, but in fact, we've just scraped the tip of the "iceberg".

I wish to extend these elements on my own for my project by juxtaposing man-made forms like buildings, bridges, etc. With forms found naturally, like streams, boulders, and fallen trees. The focus will not be a parasitic relationship, but a complete relationship with parasitic and symbiotic traits. I will play with saturation, but to a lesser extent. I want to use saturation to help show a more raw relationship, not polished for presenting to the world.

Under the Influence Research - Aalayna Southerland

 Carlos Jimenez Varela

Portfolio: https://jimenezvarela.com/work

My inspiration for the Under the Influence Project is Carlos Jimenez Varela.  Carlos is a photo compositor and High-End retoucher from Costa Rica. By trade Carlos is a Graphic Designer and worked in Advertising for 17 years in both Costa Rica and Panama. After, he turned to freelance to showcase his photo compositing skills. He won gold at the Latin American Design Awards 2021 for his works that featured giant sneakers in places they normally wouldn’t be in. This win gave him the opportunity to work with many brands such as Adobe, New Balance, Puma, and more. 

As a shoe lover the majority of Carlos’s work focuses on putting giant shoes in odd places. While he does have some work that have different giant objects like crowns, strollers,and sunglasses, his main subject is shoes. His work is almost cinematic because of the angles he uses as well as the color grading. Most of his work is client work and therefore are mainly to advertise the releases of shoes/ other apparel but he does a great job of storytelling through his composites.

In my own project I want to experiment with scale and produce something that looks cinematic similar to Carlos’s work. In most if not all of his work, the shoes/ apparel are placed in an outside environment. I want to change the environment and place giant objects inside buildings. I would also like to tell a story about my objects and their environments. 

PUMA Suede Dubai

Selehe Bembury x New Balance 574 Yurt

Saucony Grid Azura 2000 by Jae Tips Photo Composites

Under The Influence - Aiden Stanford

 

https://www.magdiellopez.com/

Magdiel Lopez is a digital artist whose work relies on compositing, bringing together photography, graphic design, symbolism, and bright color. Through his portfolio, Lopez creates dreamlike images by combining reality with abstract shapes and forms. Lopez often works with bright pallets with neon colors and gradients that shift from warm to cool. These choices give his work an atmospheric glow.  

Formally, this work shows a deep understanding of photoshop compositing techniques such as masking and color grading. Lopez also relies on repeated patterns and shapes to create rhythm throughout his compositions. 

Conceptually, his work seems to explore ideas related to cultural identity and futurism. His use of birds and organic patterns could suggest themes of transformation. For my own Under the Influence project, I want to build on the works and ideas of Magdiel Lopez by using similar methods of merging photography with symbolic graphics. I plan to work with shapes, gradients, and textures to achieve this.  

Under the Influence Blog Post - Liz Taylor

Under the Influence Blog Post

Artist: Luis Dourado

The artist I have chosen for my under the influence blog post is Luis Dourado. Luis Dourado is a Portuguese illustrator and visual artist known for his surreal, sci-fi-inspired photo collages. His work feels like a one-man assault on realism, transforming everyday portraits and landscapes into strange, otherworldly images. He blends photography, collage, and digital manipulation to explore themes of memory, perception, and identity. Many of his pieces feature obscured faces, layered textures, and symmetrical compositions that distort reality just enough to feel dreamlike. His art often captures a tension between the familiar and the fantastical, like a memory that feels real but looks slightly altered in your mind.

Dourado’s style relies on muted tones, geometric fragments, and bursts of bright, almost cosmic color. He often uses symmetry, repetition, and soft gradients to create balanced yet unsettling compositions. The result is a sense of both order and distortion, as if the viewer is caught in a glitch between two worlds. His use of Photoshop and compositing techniques; such as layer masking, blending modes, and texture overlays—allows him to merge photographs seamlessly while still leaving hints of manipulation. The mix of analog imagery and digital editing gives his pieces a handmade feel, even though they exist entirely in the digital space.

For my project, I want to take inspiration from Dourado’s surreal compositing style and apply it to my own experiences traveling and studying abroad in Lyon, France. I plan to combine my own photos of the city with overlays of text, patterns, or symbolic elements that represent memory and translation. Like Dourado, I want to create something that feels slightly detached from reality. Less like a travel photo and more like a dream or recollection. By experimenting with subtle distortions, mirrored imagery, and layered color effects, I hope to build a piece that reflects how travel changes the way we see familiar places, blending what’s real with what’s remembered.

Luis Dourado Website: https://luisdourado.studio/

Jessica Holler - Under the Influence Research

Artist: Brooke Shaden

Website: https://brookeshaden.com/portfolio

Brooke Shaden is an American fine art photographer known for her surreal, emotionally charged self-portraits that blend dreams and reality. Born in 1987 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, she began her career in film before transitioning to photography in 2008. This background in filmmaking helped shape her narrative approach to visual storytelling. Shaden often uses herself as the subject in her work as a way to explore emotions through a personal lens. Her images often focus on themes of rebirth, transformation, isolation, and inner strength.

Her work is easy to recognize because of its dreamy, painterly style, soft lighting, and rich contrasts. She often uses muted, earthy colors and balanced compositions that focus on emotion and movement. Shaden composites multiple photos, textures, and tones to build haunting yet beautiful scenes that feel both realistic and surreal. Her skill with digital editing turns photography into something that feels like visual poetry.

In my own project, I want to expand on Shaden’s emotional storytelling and her creative use of dreamlike compositing. I’m inspired by how she uses symbolism to construct meaning within the atmosphere of her pieces. Like her, I plan to composite textures and images as a storytelling tool to create expressive, transformative portraits, but with a focus on psychological tension and identity, using color and movement to evoke emotion and connection.

Artwork:

Under the Influence: George Stern

David Carson

 Design Work: https://www.davidcarsondesign.com/t/tag/ad

David Carson's work pushed the boundaries of graphic design, working against traditional notions of readability and structure, in favor of being memorable and bold. His background came from surfing and magazine design, both of which heavily influence the works, with a sense of flow and chaos in design spreads. Carson takes an instinctual and expressive approach to typography and layout, with a sense of erratic motion in his design. The most famous work, Ray Gun magazine, pictured below, abandons the rigid grid, favoring layered texture, distressed type, and visual rhythm that evokes the energy of the youthful culture at the time. Most often the subject matter dealt with music, rebellion, and raw emotion, design used as a tool to express the visceral feelings strewn throughout. Through his work, asymmetry, fragmentation, and distortion create a visual language that communicates the rawness of lived experiences. 

The works often push typography into image, relying on a built tension between clarity and confusion. This tension pulls the viewer into the almost surreal experience, creating a memorable moment communicated in design. Use of negative space, torn edges, and overlapping images challenge viewers to actively engage with the page. The act of reading becomes an experience, each work taking on the meaning of the image, benefiting as a whole. This quality calls to postmodern ideas of fractures meaning and personal perspective. Instead of conforming to the design standard of Swiss Design, prevalent for decades as a response to legibility and function, Carson's work rebels to communicate mood, transforming type and image into an emotional texture. 

In my own project, I wish to bring Carson's experimental approach into advertisements, exploring digital composited imagery in similarly expressive ways. Like Carson, I am aiming to emphasize emotional experiences that resonate with viewers, using fragmentation, layering and unexpected juxtapositions of subject matter. I hope to continue the feelings set by Carson, and bring it into a more modern context of current rebellion in political movements of today. 

    

Ray Gun, featuring Andy Warhol.

posters for san Sabastian surf film festival, Spain.

The campaign featured in Print magazine.

Sallie Kate Thompson - Under the Influence Research

 Under the Influence Research

https://www.smwvisuals.com/ 

Chosen Artist: Shaylin Wallace

Shaylin Wallace is a 21-year-old digital artist who specializes in creating surreal imagery by using Adobe Photoshop with the use of stock photography. She is currently majoring in Graphic Design and is interested in pushing boundaries by combining minimalist design with surrealism. Her work is designed in a way that is not easily recognizable, and interpretation is subject to shift greatly.  Many of her compositions seem to be basic at first glance, presenting an unreal or bizarre viewing experience. With these particular works feeling vague at first, it allows viewers to explore their own interpretation while reflecting on their personal experiences that remind them of possibly a specific part of her piece. 

Wallace uses cool and warm tones in an intense and saturated manner to capture the viewer’s attention. She uses photography with models posed specifically to evoke different emotions while allowing viewers to reflect on their own identities and experiences. In Shalylin Wallace’s piece, Billow Tree, viewers can see a singular tree standing in a red field with a very bright blue sky. The leaves of the tree are very whimsical and painted in a soft, white color. Creating environments that have a heavily minimalistic placement creates a lonely, dreamlike space. The tone of these pieces feels very bold, where the red is incredibly vibrant next to a blue that feels soothing. There is minimal use of any texture in these pieces that creates a sense of symmetry. Symmetry is also visible, as many of the subjects are centered. 

In my own project, I want to utilize primarily two colors that appear contrasting and vibrant. I want to create compositions that feel very mysterious, yet have one main subject visible that stands out. Though I would like to play more with spatial depth in contrast to Wallace, creating a flat space. It would also be interesting to include blue in reference to a more futuristic tone. It would also be interesting to have two different subjects existing within the two colored realms. I also really find it satisfying that Wallace used a silhouette of a person, and within the silhouette was an image of leaves. I think conducting a similar concept, such as this, could be interesting, where I could experiment with different overlays and color modes. 

Subject Matter/Themes

• Explores psychological states, emotions, and identity through photography. 

• The body can be used as a site of transformation to represent inner feelings.

• Creating dreamlike spaces that feel intimate. 

Formal Elements:

• Heavy use of red and blue colors for a powerful contrast. 

• Red can be interpreted to symbolize passion, urgency, or even violence.

• There is the use of high contrast, as well as deep shadows and bright lighting. 

• Creating environments that feel impractical, yet powerful. 

Concepts: 

• Natural yet cosmic elements through digital manipulation.

• Digital collages with geometric forms.

• Reimagined beauty and self-expression. 

• Metaphors for alternate worlds and human emotion. (meditation, calmness, passion, aggression).

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Landry Hutchens - Under the Influence Research

I have chosen Christos Alamaniotis as the inspiration for my Under the Influence Project. His work resonates strongly with me in how he uses compositing, not simply as a tool or afterthought, but as a central expressive mechanism to create layered and culturally charged visuals.

Alamaniotis works primarily in the realm of music-industry graphics (album covers, merchandise, posters) and underground/counter-culture imagery. His subjects often centre on identity, attitude, and sub­culture—bands, strong visual personalities, the “punk” or post-punk aesthetic, DIY roots, rebellious energy. In his archive of personal works, you find collages that incorporate human faces, fragmented typography, stylized iconography, and slogans. These suggest themes of vulnerability, rage, transformation, and the collision of pop imagery and personal pain. The subject is never just the face or the person, but a tension between image, identity, culture, and manipulation. The compositing becomes a way to overlay these tensions visually.

Formally, his pieces lean heavily on collage techniques and digital compositing in tools like Adobe Photoshop, mixing photographic elements, found imagery, typography, and texture. You’ll notice layered transparencies, bold contrasting color fields, grainy textures, glitch-like distortions, and the repetition of motifs (eyes, hands, faces). His typography is integrated not as a caption but as texture: slogans aligned with the face, often at odd angles, becoming part of the image rather than separate. The formal “look” is fragmented, kinetic, and deliberately imperfect. Grain, rough edges, collage tears, or digital glitch marks all give a sense of rawness, of the constructed rather than seamless.

Conceptually, Alamaniotis is working at the intersection of culture (music, identity, subcultures), image economy (merchandise, album covers), and personal expression (archive work that feels more introspective). The compositing technique itself mirrors the thematic idea: the self (face) is fragmented, overlayed by culture (typography, sub-graphics), obscured by texture (grain, glitch), and reconstructed through layers. In this sense, the form reflects the concept: identity is built through layering, collage, historical references, and raw aesthetic. The use of heavy contrast, glitch, and repetition speaks to themes of alienation, multiplicity of selves, and the visual consumption of identity. His choice of strong cultural references (punk graphics, 80s pop, global music subcultures) further emphasizes this.

For my “Under the Influence” project, I plan to draw inspiration from his textured collage works, utilizing elements like torn paper, textural overlays, and repetition of elements. A majority of his works only include one subject, often in a portrait setting, but I want to add my own spin by introducing multiple subjects and having more candid photos. I want my works to tell a story through my different compositions and utilize the image treatments as a way to add deeper layers of emotion to the overall theme.

Portfolio: https://www.christosjpeg.com/ 

Under the Influence Analysis - Alissa Davis

 Artist: Martín De Pasquale

Website: https://www.behance.net/gallery/117501847/Surreal-portraits-2020-2021?tracking_source=search_projects%7Ccomposite+art&l=485 

The most interesting formal element in these pictures uses complex shapes in the composition. The composition really helps to lead your eye on a certain path throughout the piece. Another great formal element is the use of light; in this case, very bright light that either casts broad shadows across the entire piece or creates a very clear outline throughout the composition. The vivid light adds to the complex shapes by separating the form with harsh highlights and shadows.

The main subject of these pieces is the body; More specifically, the integration of the body with the environment it inhabits. It feels as though the environment is changing the subject, making their limbs twist and their body disappear. This series was made by the artist from 2020 - 2021, the height of quarantine. These composites really encapsulate the feeling of loneliness and anxiety we were all going through at the time. By using the body as the main subject allows the viewer to connect with the artist during an uncertain moment in their life.

For my project, I want to incorporate the composition, lighting, and blur between the subject and environment. But I want to use nature as the backdrop instead of the industrial or interior background displayed in Martín‘s work. I also want to play around with color and composition by showcasing the body in different biomes (Ex, Tundras have a lot of blue) and putting the body in different situations.